Country superstar Alan Jackson released a new song, “You’ll Always Be My Baby (Written for Daughters’ Weddings)” on April 16. Penned solely by the Hall of Fame songwriter, the traditional country tune mourns the loss of the girl he raised as he walks the woman she became down the aisle. In a comfortingly familiar twang, he sings, Sixteen, first car / Twenty-one and there’s a broken heart / High heels, strong will / In my eyes I see a young child still / But you’re a woman on your own / All in love and nearly gone.
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Jackson shares, “I wrote the song for Mattie’s wedding the summer of 2017, but it was so hard to do. I told ’em, ‘I wrote this for all of you.” The father of three and 19-time ACM Award-winning artist reserved the heartfelt track for Dani and Ali down the road.
“You’ll Always Be My Baby (Written for Daughters’ Weddings)” is the latest track from Jackson’s upcoming album Where Have You Gone, produced by his go-to, Keith Stegall. Jackson wrote 15 songs on the highly anticipated 21-song follow up to Angels & Alcohol (2015), which includes the recently released tracks “Where Have You Gone” and “Way Down in My Whiskey.” “You’ll Always Be My Baby” is one of two tracks on the album about his daughters becoming wives and starting their own families. The other is “I Do,” and will be released May 14 with the entire collection.
Jackson is also set to perform “You’ll Always Be My Baby (Written for Daughters’ Weddings)” in a special mashup with his quintessential country hit “Drive (For Daddy Gene)” on the 56th Academy of Country Music Awards on Sunday, April 18 on CBS.
Pre-order Where Have You Gone, due out May 14, here.
Photos by Russ Harrington
